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Canadian Gaming News..
Issue 138 n
Local Community Impact
studies released
December 2006 - January 2007
On June 16, 1998 the Government of
Ontario abandoned plans to create 44
charity casinos to replace that prov-ince's
roving Monte Carlo casinos,
the profits from which went to char-ity.
Instead, it announced that it
would open four larger casinos, each
of which would have a maximum of
450 slot machines and 50 table
games. This slot ceiling was subse-quently
set aside with Thousand Is-lands
Charity Casino, for example,
now having 523 slot machines.
While these casinos would look and
operate like commercial casinos, they
were branded charity casinos because
each year $ 100 million of their com-bined
profits would theoretically be
designated for charities to compensate
them for the loss of the Monte Carlo
money. We say theoretically as we
understand that the $ 100 million
really comes out of general gaming
revenue with no specific set aside of
charity casino revenue, which has
made us wonder why these casinos
continue to be called ' charity'.
Several months after the announce-ment
of the first four charity casinos,
the government also announced its
intention to study the social and eco-nomic
impact they were having upon
their host communities. To do this,
the Ministry of Health and Long
Term Care hired Robert Hann &
Associates to undertake a series of
studies for each community and ca-sino.
Hann & Associates did a total of 11
studies at a total cost of $ 389,9 1 1.00.
Its research was undertaken during
the 1999 - 2005 period with its final
report dated December 14,2005.
' Pre- opening' and ' post- opening7
studies where undertaken in the City
of Samia ( Point Edward Charity
Casino and Hiawatha Horse Park
racino), City of Brantford
( Brantford Charity Casino), City
of Sault Ste. Marie ( Sault Ste.
Marie Charity Casino), and the
City of Thunder Bay ( Thunder
Bay Charity Casino).
As Point Edward Charity Casino is
located within the Village of Point
Edward which is, in a practical
sense, a part of the City of Sarnia,
and as Hiawatha Park racetrack is
also located within the City Samia,
it was impractical to study Point
Edward without including Hiawa-tha.
For the purposes of the re-search,
these two gaming facilities
were therefore considered as one.
Since no one had ever undertaken
this type of review in these commu-nities
before, each of the four pre-opening
studies were really scans of
a wide range of local social and
economic data as provided by vari-ous
levels of government and local
agencies and associations. This
scan looked, for example, at popu-lation
growth, per capita incomes,
retail sales, employment rates, wel-fare
caseloads; the number of re-cipients
of Family Benefits Allow-ances,
bankruptcies, home owner-ship,
foreign visitations, divorce
rates, suicides, number of licensed
establishments, debt counseling
levels, and waiting lists for subsi-dized
housing.
The consultant's pre- opening re-search
also included telephone sur-veys,
each involving 1,000 people,
in each of the four communities.
These surveys collected baseline
economic information and informa-tion
on public attitudes toward ca-sino
gaming. The surveys also used
I Ivan Sack I
the South Oaks Gambling Screen
( SOGS) to measure actual and prob-able
levels of compulsive gambling in
each community before its casino1
racino opened. Local consultants
were also hired to make contact with
local agencies and opinion leaders
such as charities and Chambers of
Commerce to facilitate discussions on
casino- related issues.
During this first phase, the consultants
also requested, and Ontario Lottery
& Gaming ( OLG) agreed to provide,
data on local gaming revenue, expen-ditures
for local staffing, local pur-chases
of goods and services, etc.
As a general comment, Hann & Asso-ciates
say it regards the '. . . pre-opening
phase ( of its research) as suc-cessful
overall, ( though) some tasks
were completed later than orzginally
planned, and others were not as suc-cessful
as originally hoped'.
The second phase of Hann & Associ-ate's
research, its post- opening re-search,
included a second round of the
1000- person telephone surveys in
each community, an update of the
local social and economic data, and
casinolracino patron exit surveys for
the four communities and the Town of
Gananoque ( Thousand Islands
Charity Casino).
Gananoque was a surprize addition
given that the government had previ-
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!

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Full-Text

Canadian Gaming News..
Issue 138 n
Local Community Impact
studies released
December 2006 - January 2007
On June 16, 1998 the Government of
Ontario abandoned plans to create 44
charity casinos to replace that prov-ince's
roving Monte Carlo casinos,
the profits from which went to char-ity.
Instead, it announced that it
would open four larger casinos, each
of which would have a maximum of
450 slot machines and 50 table
games. This slot ceiling was subse-quently
set aside with Thousand Is-lands
Charity Casino, for example,
now having 523 slot machines.
While these casinos would look and
operate like commercial casinos, they
were branded charity casinos because
each year $ 100 million of their com-bined
profits would theoretically be
designated for charities to compensate
them for the loss of the Monte Carlo
money. We say theoretically as we
understand that the $ 100 million
really comes out of general gaming
revenue with no specific set aside of
charity casino revenue, which has
made us wonder why these casinos
continue to be called ' charity'.
Several months after the announce-ment
of the first four charity casinos,
the government also announced its
intention to study the social and eco-nomic
impact they were having upon
their host communities. To do this,
the Ministry of Health and Long
Term Care hired Robert Hann &
Associates to undertake a series of
studies for each community and ca-sino.
Hann & Associates did a total of 11
studies at a total cost of $ 389,9 1 1.00.
Its research was undertaken during
the 1999 - 2005 period with its final
report dated December 14,2005.
' Pre- opening' and ' post- opening7
studies where undertaken in the City
of Samia ( Point Edward Charity
Casino and Hiawatha Horse Park
racino), City of Brantford
( Brantford Charity Casino), City
of Sault Ste. Marie ( Sault Ste.
Marie Charity Casino), and the
City of Thunder Bay ( Thunder
Bay Charity Casino).
As Point Edward Charity Casino is
located within the Village of Point
Edward which is, in a practical
sense, a part of the City of Sarnia,
and as Hiawatha Park racetrack is
also located within the City Samia,
it was impractical to study Point
Edward without including Hiawa-tha.
For the purposes of the re-search,
these two gaming facilities
were therefore considered as one.
Since no one had ever undertaken
this type of review in these commu-nities
before, each of the four pre-opening
studies were really scans of
a wide range of local social and
economic data as provided by vari-ous
levels of government and local
agencies and associations. This
scan looked, for example, at popu-lation
growth, per capita incomes,
retail sales, employment rates, wel-fare
caseloads; the number of re-cipients
of Family Benefits Allow-ances,
bankruptcies, home owner-ship,
foreign visitations, divorce
rates, suicides, number of licensed
establishments, debt counseling
levels, and waiting lists for subsi-dized
housing.
The consultant's pre- opening re-search
also included telephone sur-veys,
each involving 1,000 people,
in each of the four communities.
These surveys collected baseline
economic information and informa-tion
on public attitudes toward ca-sino
gaming. The surveys also used
I Ivan Sack I
the South Oaks Gambling Screen
( SOGS) to measure actual and prob-able
levels of compulsive gambling in
each community before its casino1
racino opened. Local consultants
were also hired to make contact with
local agencies and opinion leaders
such as charities and Chambers of
Commerce to facilitate discussions on
casino- related issues.
During this first phase, the consultants
also requested, and Ontario Lottery
& Gaming ( OLG) agreed to provide,
data on local gaming revenue, expen-ditures
for local staffing, local pur-chases
of goods and services, etc.
As a general comment, Hann & Asso-ciates
say it regards the '. . . pre-opening
phase ( of its research) as suc-cessful
overall, ( though) some tasks
were completed later than orzginally
planned, and others were not as suc-cessful
as originally hoped'.
The second phase of Hann & Associ-ate's
research, its post- opening re-search,
included a second round of the
1000- person telephone surveys in
each community, an update of the
local social and economic data, and
casinolracino patron exit surveys for
the four communities and the Town of
Gananoque ( Thousand Islands
Charity Casino).
Gananoque was a surprize addition
given that the government had previ-
Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!